SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Families who attend Christmas Eve services at a Sioux Falls church this week will walk away with a piece of downtown history.
A local woodworker is putting the finishing touches on hundreds of ornaments made from an old pine that once towered over Minnesota Avenue, and for decades, was decorated for the holidays.
Jim Fitzgerald is laser-focused on woodworking.
“It’s relaxing for me,” Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald’s workshop inside his heated garage features a pair of lasers that he programs to carve wood.
“It’s fun to see what a computer program will tell these machines, how a computer program can just kind of make it out of wood,” Fitzgerald said.
The wood comes from a 50-foot pine that grew next to the First United Methodist Church for more than a century. Old age weakened the tree to the point where the church had to replace it with an artificial Christmas tree last year.
“We cut the tree down, we took it to a sawmill that planked it all like that, and then we just let it sit for like eight months,” First United Methodist Church Board of Trustees Chair Ben Lamp said.
That’s when the church reached out to Fitzgerald to create a lasting holiday memory out of the pine planks.
“He gets close to running out of wood, he calls me, I need more wood,” (laughs) Lamp said.
The end result is Christmas ornaments that will be given to church families on Christmas Eve.
“I think they’re beautiful. They’ve done a great job,” Lamp said.
One of Fitzgerald’s lasers cuts crosses out of the wood.
“It’s really easy to work with. It’s a nice, softwood,” Fitzgerald said.
The other laser then etches an intricate nativity design onto the crosses.
“It burns the wood, is what it’s doing,” Fitzgerald said.
This is a spare-time project that’s taken up most of Fitzgerald’s nights and weekends. He admits he was a little overwhelmed by the sheer volume of the order.
“I was a little taken aback. I’ve never done that many, never done anything that big. I’ve done five, six you know, here and there for things. But 500, that was quite a challenge. I was like, well, challenge accepted, we’ll take it,” Fitzgerald said.
And Fitzgerald, whose day job is an auto mechanic, is doing all the work for free.
“Why am I doing it for the church? Just giving back. Just something we thought we’d thought it’d be nice to do, anyway,’ Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald’s family is helping with the project. He’s confident, with their assistance, that he can get all 500 ornaments completed before the deadline. No pressure at all.
“It’s a relaxed atmosphere, so they can come and go as they please. I don’t have to worry about my boss coming out here and yelling at me, besides the wife, get in here and supper, you know,” Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald says he’s aiming for a rustic, natural look to his ornaments.
“I didn’t change anything in the wood. So, whatever imperfections are in the wood, stayed there. Like this one. I mean, this one’s got a little knot hole,” Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald is a self-described ‘tinkerer,’ who’s giving back to a congregation so they can preserve the memory of a tall tree that was a festive focal point of Christmases past, for so long.
“We just really appreciate what Jim and his family are doing for us. It’s a very, very, very important blessing for us,” Lamp said.
There will still be leftover wood even after Fitzgerald finishes all the ornaments. So he’s planning on creating Easter decorations from the remaining planks for the congregation next spring.
